A daily blog on architecture in Chicago, and other topics cultural, political and mineral.
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Thursday, May 15, 2008

Preservation Chicago's New President Not Fine

On May 6th, the grass roots activists group Preservation Chicago became a bit more rooted when it named Bill Neuendorf, 40, an engineer whose work includes the preservation of historic structures, as their new President. Neuendorf takes over from long-time president Jonathan Fine, who co-founded the organization with ongoing VP Mike Moran in 2001, with Fine now assuming the title of Executive Director. The final sentence of the press release gave us a bit of pause. "Previously an all-volunteer organization, this new leadership team is ready to propel Preservation Chicago into the next chapter of its professional life." As reported by Blair Kamin, PC will now have paid staff, including both Fine and new Communications Manager Stacey Pfingsten, both in part-time positions (at least in salary), thanks to grants from the Driehaus and Alphawood Foundations. This makes PC more "organization", but it's also liable to make the importance of fund-raising, now required to make the payroll, more central, a step that can prove treacherous. Here's hoping PC's donor base has grown to the point of sustaining their new ambitions over the longer term.

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. . . writings on architecture have appeared in the Chicago Reader, Metropolis Magazine, the Harvard Design Magazine, and the backs of discarded gum wrappers.
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